“We Live Bus” Campaign

This is a DL flyer we designed a few weeks ago for our client Heritage Finance in Melbourne. Heritage Finance is a 20+ year old business that specialises in sourcing and structuring finance for buses and heavy equipment.

One of their staff was going on a bus industry roadshow in NSW and wanted a flyer to hand out. We thought hard (as always) about the design. Most design shops will just make a pretty DL and be done with it. We believe that every piece of marketing collateral you produce should be as effective as possible. This piece went through about 20 revisions until we were happy with it… and we only had a week to get it done.

It had to accomplish a few important objectives:

1. Capture attention quickly. As always, we believe it has to first be VISUALLY engaging, and then the copy has to be short, sharp and to the point.
2. Make it immediately obvious that Heritage Finance is a leader in the bus industry.
3. Make it immediately obvious that they understand the NSW market.
4. Drive home the message that Heritage Finance can be trusted as a partner.

The solution had several elements.

1. The NSW state logo (the stylised waratah) made out of buses. We wanted it to be obvious that this was the NSW waratah but not obvious what it was made out of. It is supposed to draw in your attention. “What’s going on with that?” – and then you look closer and realise it is made out of buses. As the visual center of our brain works faster than the pre-frontal cortex (which deals with language and conceptual thinking), we need to engage the reader’s attention visually first, and only when we have their attention, can we invite them to read the copy.

2. The main message on the front is that the client’s business isn’t just a business, as most of them are owner-operators running family businesses. It’s more than just a business – it’s their heritage, something they are going to pass on to their kids. Obviously an opportunity to play on the Heritage brand and the word BUSiness.

3. The back page simplifies down the message that Heritage understands the bus industry into two three-word caveman slogans. WE LIVE BUS. WE TALK BANK.

4. Finally there are a few call to action statements which, frankly, we would have preferred not to muddy the asset with, but the client insisted.